So you want to get your online business up and running but there’s one little problem - you need a website! For any business, big or small, a professional website is important if you want to attract potential clients or customers and create a solid foundation for continued success. But many people have no idea how to go about the process. Luckily, it’s actually quite easy to get a functional, well designed and user-friendly website online in a reasonable amount of time. And depending on your particular situation and budget, there are several options available to make your business goals a reality.

The first option is to hire a designer. If you are willing to invest a good sum of money into the initial stages of developing your business, hiring a professional website designer or web design company should be something to seriously consider. The job will cost you thousands of dollars (if you hire a reputable designer) but all the pressure and work will be on someone else’s shoulders. Spending a lot of money right at the beginning of your venture may seem a little risky, but compared to other business endeavors the cost - and risk - are minimal. And the amount of money you have the potential to make after your site goes live will far outweigh the amount of money initially invested in its construction. Also, if you expect a professional job, hiring a professional is the best way to attain that objective.

A designer will consult with you regarding what you need in a website - a simple basic website, flash-based design, and ecommerce sites are the most common. You will also discuss form, functionality, color scheme, graphics, and other important points. Sometimes content can be obtained through your web designer as well, or you can fulfill your content needs after the basic website design is completed. In the end, hiring a web designer offers you a lot of flexibility and gives you the ability to fully customize your website in all aspects of its design.

Go it Alone

If you don’t have the money to spend on a good web designer or feel it’s unnecessary for your purposes, there’s no reason why you can’t create the website yourself. And this option applies to everyone - even if you know nothing about HTML or web design. Of course, if you do know a little bit of HTML - or are willing to put your nose to the grindstone and scour the Internet and your local library to learn HTML - you can certainly build a website from scratch. But nowadays there are other ways to make your own business website without struggling with HTML or a costly designer.

Website templates, for example, combine the professional design talents of an experienced web designer with the cost-effectiveness of going it alone. Templates are ready-made web pages that a designer or design company sells for a small sum - the cost is so low simply because the template can be resold over and over again. In addition, if you purchase a website template that won’t be resold after you buy it the cost will rise but still ends up being much more affordable than working with a designer one-on-one. The cost is kept relatively low because, although the template cannot be sold to another person, the design was already created and the buyer agrees to purchase it ‘as is.’

When you visit a website selling templates you are given the freedom to browse through a wide selection of different styles of website designs. Once you find the perfect match for your business you simply purchase and download. All that’s left is to edit it using a simple HTML editor to add content, graphics - you name it. One such website template company I found that offers quality, reasonably priced templates is TemplateDogma (see the link in Resource Box).

The final option is to use an online website builder to do the job. This type of program holds your hand every step of the way so that you can build a website without knowing anything about computer languages or design techniques. Even if you use a WYSIWYG editor it is possible to get lost along the way, and as mentioned above, templates do require editing after you make the purchase. A website builder is the only option that essentially automates the entire process. You might not be able to customize every aspect of the site, as templates are usually part of the procedure, but adding content, pictures, charts and tables to the site is made entirely hassle-free.

As you can see, there are many different ways to build a website from the ground up. In the end, choose the option you think will lead you down the path toward online success and you’ll be happy with the results.

By: Katerina Mitrou

Technorati Tags: building set, building web pages, free website builder

If you’re considering a web design career, then you need training in Adobe Dreamweaver. The full Adobe Web Creative Suite ought also to be learned in its entirety. This will introduce you to Flash and Action Script, amongst others, and means you’ll be in a position to take your Adobe Certified Professional (ACP) or an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) accreditation.

In order to become a well-rounded web professional however, you’ll have to get more diverse knowledge. You will need to learn certain programming skills like HTML, PHP and database engines like MySQL. A good understanding of E-Commerce and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) will also improve your CV and employability.
Working on the cutting-edge of new technology really is electrifying. You become one of a team of people shaping the next few decades. There are people who believe that the technological revolution we have experienced is slowing down. All indicators point in the opposite direction. Terrific advances are ahead of us, and the internet particularly will be the most effective tool in our lives.
A typical IT worker in the United Kingdom can demonstrate that they get noticeably more money than employees on a par in much of the rest of the economy. Average incomes are hard to beat nationally. As the IT industry keeps emerging at an unprecedented rate, it’s looking good that the need for certified IT specialists will continue to boom for quite some time to come.
How are we supposed to go about making the right decisions then? With so many opportunities, we have to know where we should look - and what to be investigating.
A typical blunder that many potential students make is to focus entirely on getting a qualification, and not focus on the desired end-result. Schools are stacked to the hilt with students who took a course because it seemed fun - in place of something that could gain them the job they want. It’s not unheard of, for instance, to thoroughly enjoy one year of training but end up spending 10 or 20 years in a job you hate, as a consequence of not performing some decent due-diligence when it was needed - at the start.
You need to keep your eye on where you want to go, and then build your training requirements around that - don’t do it back-to-front. Keep your eyes on your goals and begin studying for a job that will keep you happy for many years. Seek advice from an experienced industry advisor, even if you have to pay - it’s much safer and cheaper to investigate at the start whether your choices are appropriate, rather than realise after several years of study that you’re doing entirely the wrong thing and have wasted years of effort.
Traditional teaching in classrooms, utilising reference manuals and books, is an up-hill struggle for the majority of us. If this sounds like you, check out study materials which have a majority of interactive, multimedia parts. Research has repeatedly demonstrated that connecting physically with our study, is far more likely to produce long-lasting memories.
Courses are now available on CD and DVD discs, where your computer becomes the centre of your learning. Through video streaming, you can watch instructors demonstrating how to do something, and then have a go at it yourself - with interactive lab sessions. Always insist on a training material demonstration from the training company. The materials should incorporate expert-led demonstrations, slideshows and lab’s for you to practice your skills in.
It’s usually bad advice to choose training that is only available online. With highly variable reliability and quality from the ISP (internet service provider) market, ensure that you have access to disc based courseware (On CD or DVD).
Many training companies only provide office hours or extended office hours support; very few go late in the evening or at weekends. Many only provide email support (too slow), and telephone support is usually to a call-centre who will just take down the issue and email it over to their technical team - who’ll call back sometime over the next 1-3 days, at a time suitable for them. This is not a lot of use if you’re sitting there confused over an issue and only have certain times available in which to do your studies.
We recommend that you search for training programs that utilise many support facilities around the globe in several time-zones. All of them should be combined to provide a single interface as well as 24×7 access, when it’s convenient for you, with no hassle. Unless you insist on direct-access 24×7 support, you’ll regret it very quickly. You may avoid using the support during the night, but you may need weekends, late evenings or early mornings.
Many people question why traditional academic studies are now falling behind more commercially accredited qualifications? As we require increasingly more effective technological know-how, the IT sector has had to move to specialist courses that can only come from the vendors - in other words companies like CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA. Often this saves time and money for the student. The training is effectively done by concentrating on the skill-sets required (alongside a relevant amount of associated knowledge,) as opposed to going into the heightened depths of background ‘padding’ that academic courses are prone to get tied up in - to pad out the syllabus.
Just as the old advertisement said: ‘It does what it says on the tin’. Employers simply need to know what areas need to be serviced, and then match up the appropriate exam numbers as a requirement. Then they’re assured that a potential employee can do exactly what’s required.
A sneaky way that training providers make extra profits is through up-front charges for exams and offering an exam guarantee. This sounds impressive, but is it really:
They’ve allowed costings for it one way or another. One thing’s for sure - it isn’t free - it’s simply been shoe-horned into the price as a whole. Trainees who go in for their examinations when it’s appropriate, funding them as they go are far more likely to pass first time. They are thoughtful of the cost and prepare more appropriately to be ready for the task.
Isn’t it outrageous to have to pay your training company at the start of the course for examination fees? Go for the best offer at the appropriate time, instead of paying any mark-up - and take it closer to home - rather than in some remote place. A great deal of money is made by many companies who incorporate exam fees into the cost of the course. Many students don’t take them for one reason or another but the company keeps the money. Amazingly, there are training companies who rely on that fact - as that’s where a lot of their profit comes from. Additionally, you should consider what an ‘exam guarantee’ really means. The majority of companies won’t pay again for an exam until you can prove to them you’re ready to pass.
Due to typical VUE and Prometric examinations costing in the region of 112 pounds in this country, by far the best option is to pay for them as you take them. Why splash out often many hundreds of pounds extra at the beginning of your training? Commitment, effort and practice with quality exam preparation systems are the factors that really get you through.
One feature that many training companies provide is a programme of Job Placement assistance. This is to help you find your first job in the industry. The honest truth is that it isn’t so complicated as you might think to find a job - assuming you’re well trained and qualified; the growing UK skills shortage sees to that.
Whatever you do, don’t leave it until you’ve finished your training before updating your CV. As soon as you start a course, enter details of your study programme and place it on jobsites! You may not have got to the stage where you’ve qualified when you will get your initial junior support position; but this can’t and won’t happen if interviewers don’t get sight of your CV. The most reliable organisations to help get you placed are usually specialised and independent recruitment consultants. As they will get paid by the employer when they’ve placed you, they’re perhaps more focused on results.
A constant frustration of some training companies is how hard students are prepared to work to get top marks in their exams, but how un-prepared they are to work on getting the job they’re qualified for. Don’t give up when the best is yet to come.

By: Jason Kendall

Technorati Tags: design courses, instructional design training, training development